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As a broker, what online strategies can I use to find borrowers?

I broker SBA loans for business buyers. What online strategies can I use to find borrowers?
What are the most effective ways to use the Internet to find people who are buying a business and need an SBA loan?

As a general rule, you want to be offering the loans brokering just at the point where business buyers are looking for them.

At what stage would that be? Just after they have written a business plan? When they're ready to expand their business?

Supposing it was the business plan stage. You could offer a short piece on a business plan question regarding funding. In other words, a landing page, which points to your free PDF that explains "how to find funding for your business."

Then the prospect has shared their email (because that's where you send the PDF). You could then do a follow-up email a day or two later asking: "did you find that little guide helpful? " and then offer to jump on a call in which you ask a little more about their business idea, and then you could ask: "are you confident you'll have the funding you need?"

If the SBA loan is happening when they are looking to grow their business, then the lead magnet (the free PDF) would perhaps be about how to work out how much this business expansion would cost.

I hope this helps.

I'm in Australia and my field is more helping IT people who hate selling, but my advice is somewhat similar: offer something valuable for free (in exchange for an email address), then ask them if it was helpful.

If you have any follow-up questions, I'd be glad if you wanted to book a call.

Great question, for some reason I didn't see this in my queue. You are asking a lead generation and demographic question and the answer in itself is simple even if the actual effort to achieve may not. What you need is inbound marketing, you may have heard of companies like InfusionSoft and or Hubspot that offer retargeting and customer nurture software.

As MBA and business owner and consultant I can tell you that I know the difference between a traditional loan and a strategic loan whether is from SBA or a vendor. The problem is that most business owners who might need the SBA loan as a way to fund their new business or fund their growth might not necessarily think of a loan as strategic but as another debt to carry as they do on their personal finances and this adds a negative connotation to the whole thing. You could try and pitch every single business owner out there, like most brokers do, and you will definitely waste a lot of time because many if not most owners will be enticed to the conversation about easy lending up until the point where they actually have to put down their information and commit, this means brokers waste a lot of time chasing around leads that are leads only because they are alive. This is no way of doing business.

What I would do is employ inbound marketing techniques by doing so the process will enable me, broker, to position myself as a thought leader on the matter, industry resource for small businesses in certain industries, employee number, revenue number, etc... I would simply stick to one niche and leverage that niche knowledge to create content about topics that will be impactful to these business owners, nurture their growth, be with them when they don't need you and over time just like in in-person networking, you will build a trust based relationship based on who you are, your knowledge and how you 'carry' yourself online. inbound marketing will allow you to create blogs, videos, etc. and then find your consumers through places where they congregate the most.

Some cities are heavy on Craigslist and see CL as legit of a business place as Linkedin, while some use only Facebook. I know this because I am a competitive marketer and do my research. So in each city, you would distribute your content through the primary communication channel... you focus on creating, offering the service and waiting for them to come to you. Unlike cold calling, cold emailing, lead buying, and paid ads - content created is content that will live for ever. So over time you build content that is spread all over the web for your type of client to find and read because they are looking for the type of content you have provided for them... this is why you see consultants, marketers, coaches, etc. trade free e-books in exchange for your email or contact number... people who are willing to trade and read your ebook as more likely to be converted.

This is the most effective way because is the only sustainable and efficient. It takes time and commitment and thats why is not the easiest, but you asked for the most effective. Companies like my agency, www.Unthink.me, offer inbound marketing services to small and new businesses who need services that solve problems like yours. If you are interested and would like to speak with me about our services, please don't hesitate to call me, send me an email (humberto@unthink.me). I hope my answer is helpful :)

Personally, I think paid search is the best way to go to drive targeted search traffic to your website or lead generation page. People searching for "SBA loan" are going to be your best prospects. Due to the fact that its very competitive to advertise wit Google Adwords and Bing Ads, you will need to use best practices of lead generation to convert as many leads as possible from the traffic you are driving there from the searches. Another really effective tactic to convert more traffic into leads or inquiries is to use what's called "visitor retargeting" which is running ads to the people you have originally driven to the lead page that don't convert into a lead. When they leave the site, i.e. abandon the form, you can then advertise to them on Facebook, Twitter, and other website throughout the Internet, to bring them back to the site.

Another strategy is using SEO or organic search to generate targeted traffic, which is more of a longer term play. You have content and articles written, as well as videos that are targeting the same search phrases you are using with your paid search campaigns. By posting articles to your site, over time, you can generate free traffic, some of which will be interested and complete your lead form. This is more of a longer term approach but in my opinion should be part of a comprehensive digital marketing strategies. Making videos about related topics that can be uploaded to youtube can also function to get organic rankings in the search engines and drive traffic to your lead pages. There are other strategies to use, these are some of the most effective in my opinion. if you have any questions please let me know or if you need an agency to handle these types of campaigns for you please contact me to discuss.